“Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under it.”-Lady MacBeth (Act 1, Scene 5)

The echoing of deceptive themes spreads between both characters MacBeth and Lady MacBeth as they strive to create the contrast between their revealed and disguised personas. Throughout the play, the characters continue to unknowingly follow in each other’s mindsets as they attempt to present an outward appearance, containing tones of innocence and restraining from those of passion or anger. However, on the inside they hide their sin and evil intentions, as shown through the negative connotations in words like “black” and “serpent”. This compliment of MacBeth smothering his stars’ flames to hide darkness accompanied by Lady MacBeth’s juxtaposition in common symbols of good and evil lead the reader to the roots of deception both in their characters and their relations between each other.

4 Responses to Married Deception

The concluding sentence in this analysis of these two coinciding lines ties together the passages while also bringing the ideas into the work as a whole. It gives the reader a better understanding of both the characters and the play itself.

Amanda works well to capture the emotions that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth feel and utilize throughout the play as a whole. “Throughout the play, the characters continue to unknowingly follow in each other’s mindsets as they attempt to present an outward appearance, containing tones of innocence and restraining from those of passion or anger.”

The third sentence is the most important to the work as a whole because she makes notes of the negative connotations in the words of the original text and how they are connected to the devil and evil, which indicates the actions that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth commit are wrong.